The use of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes has greatly benefited the oil and gas industry by increasing the production of problematic and underperforming hydrocarbon bearing wells and fields. The EOR processes used in modern oil and gas operations may include chemical, hydrochemical, thermal, fluid/superfluid and microbial based processes as well as the relatively recent plasma-pulse technology (PPT). Water injection (alternatively referred to as water flooding) has been widely used to increase the conductivity or flow of liquid hydrocarbons in subterranean reservoir treated using EOR techniques. The water source may be derived from freshwater, (for example, aquifers or surface water) as well as saltwater/brackish sources (for example, river/sea water mixtures).
The use of water flooding processes known as “smart water flooding” or simply “smart flooding” as described, e.g. in RezaeiDoust et al., Energy Fuels 23(9), 4479-4485 (2009); and Suman et al., World Journal of Engineering and Technology 2, 13-22 (2014), has found utility in recent EOR efforts. Smart flooding typically involves an ion (salt) based modification to the injectable water fraction that beneficially does not require costly chemical modifiers such as surfactants and nanomaterials. In addition, smart flooding is generally regarded as environmentally safe. However, the process of water flooding, particularly smart flooding, could be improved by developing a greater understanding of the physicochemical reservoir interactions occurring at the fluid-fluid (water-liquid hydrocarbon) and rock-fluid (reservoir-water-liquid hydrocarbon) interfaces. The need therefore exists for methods, compositions and techniques capable of improving water flooding and smart flooding as post-primary recovery processes for the recovery of crude oil and related liquid hydrocarbons.